I'm currently working for a small company that is almost like a startup (25 people and 2 small dev teams) We have a desktop and a hardware product that are successful. We are growing, and I am looking to implement a data-driven culture. I work both in Marketing and UX and I'm thinking about implementing some analytic tools and KPIs, however, we don't have much time so I would like to keep it simple. Right now we are running Hotjar for our website which is much simpler and faster to use than G.A. for marketing. The engineers are trying to capture data for the desktop and hardware product but we don't have KPIs, BI or dashboards. Is there any cheap platform that I can connect all these things together?
Another thing is employee satisfaction, I worked for another company that used Tiny Pulse which I think was a pretty smart decision, because it was simple and captured stress, motivation and happiness. The company still had problems with retention (so I guess the Tinypulse KPIs were not that good).
Engineering, dev and time are not a problem for us, so we can code these things, but cash flow is still a problem because of the investment we did on our product that is finally selling well (we are not backed by VC). We are looking for something that is not crazy expensive to pay on a monthly basis, because we are also looking into getting a marketing automation software.
I might be asking too much, but it would be awesome to have some automated A.I. helping to push these reports because otherwise It will be too much time for me to manage these things.
You mention, that you can code and maintain yourself, and at the same time it sounds like your data can be dispersed across multiple sources. And you want to minimise license cost.
In my business we use R a lot for both analysis and reporting. It is free (open source), but you will have to build programs. But it will read any format, and also create output to any destination you want. So you could start off with a mix of R, Excel and pdf, just to get things going.
However, it could make sense for you to build a database already so you familiarise yourself with data warehouse thinking, since you want to expand with marketing automation. At that point you will need a database for monitoring response, sales etc. So it is important to build the right foundation as ealy as possible.
If you don't want to code, but want point-and-click, there is boatloads of software for that, but probably more license cost (unless you can find open source for that). So If I were you, I would start off with something smaller. After all, you want to focus on the value you create for the business and your colleagues, and the time you save, rather than a smooth IT-infrastructure for this.
I have lots of experience building reporting and analysis in the areas you mention, so if you want to discuss further, feel free to set up a call.
Good look with your development.
Best regards
Kenneth Wolstrup
Couple things.before we get into details.
1) I am not sure what you meant by A.I and G.A
2) The retention issue with your friend's company is not a TinyPulse issue. The questionnaire and derived KPI were not designed or derived .
I must put my Business Intelligence and Data Integration hat on !!
HR, Marketing and Sales - We are discussing the analytics for 3 distinct coporate function here using TinyPulse , G.A for marketing and HotJar.
It makes sense that the CEO (or CXO) should have a single view dashboard
For integration , all we need to access to data. HOTJAR Roadmap (http://docs.hotjar.com/v1.0/page/roadmap) show that they will have API access in future phases.
TinyPulse do not have API access but if there is a way to get the data (as export) this could work,
HOW TO INTEGRATE
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Use a cloud based Microsoft Power BI or Qlik (Cheap or almost free) and you can build pretty powerful online dasboards joining different data sources.
The 3 sources that you have mentions - Marketing (website UX and usage), HR and Sales are so independent to each other that I do not see any possibilities to mix and match data for information discovery. But yes, you can get a single view .
Just a tip - Next time when you choose a platform or product for your company, see how mature their API and integration is .
"SaaS without API endpoints is Car without a dashboard "
Feel free to call me if you need help building something. I believe you already have an awesome team.. Kudos !!!
Thanks
Nefin
I've been creating systems like this for 15 years now for a variety of clients.
I recommend Crystal Reports and a scheduling solution called Visual Cut by Millet Software.
With that combination you have the power to schedule reporting from any structured data source and create spreadsheets, auto-refreshing dashboards, alerts, etc. You can also apply it to your CRM to use for marketing via email, tweets or SMS.
Check them both out, the cost is very low and you then have a powerful tool set that is completely in your control. IF you'd like any help or detailed advice on this I'd be happy to schedule a call.
